Structural and electronic effects boosting Ni-doped Mo2C catalyst toward high-efficiency C[sbnd]O/C[sbnd]C bonds cleavage

Abstract

The selective cleavage of CO and CC is facing a challenge in the field of catalysis. In the present work, we studied the influence of doped Ni on the structure and electronic properties, as well as the selective CO/CC bond cleavages in the hydrodeoxygenation of palmitic acid over Ni-Mo2C catalyst. The catalytic activity on Ni doped Mo2C with TOF of 6.9 × 103 h−1 is much superior to intrinsic Mo2C catalyst, which is also higher than most noble metal catalysts. Structurally, the doped Ni raises the active particle dispersion and the coordination numbers of Mo species (Mo-C and Mo-O), improves the graphitization degree to promote the electron transfer, and increases the amount of Lewis and Brønsted acid, which are responsible for the excellent hydrodeoxygenation performance. The Ni promotes simultaneously CO and CC bonds cleavage to produce pentadecane and hexadecane owing to the increase of electron-rich Mo sites after Ni doping. These findings contribute to the understanding of the nature of Ni-doped Mo2C on the roles as catalytic active sites for CO and CC bonds cleavage.